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WUNDERKAMMER TRIO |
Wunderkammer Trio plays Sakamoto's
In 1963, at the age of eleven, Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose musical interests ranged from the Beatles to Beethoven, began studying music composition under Professor Matsumoto at Tokyo University of the Arts. Eight years later, he entered the University, earning a B.A. in composition, and a Master's degree with a concentration in ethnic and electronic music. In 1977, Sakamoto began working as a composer, arranger and studio musician with Japan's most popular rock, jazz and classical artists. Within a few years, he became a noted composer, arranger, and keyboardist. In 1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album along with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi and formed Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) . YMO was immediately recognized as an international sensation. Sakamoto's interest in different types of music-- jazz, bossa nova, modern classical, dub and gamelan-- was evident in his writing for YMO, his own solo albums, and later film compositions. YMO's second album sold well over a million copies, led to a world tour, and made them, with Kraftwerk, the kings of technopop. YMO released eleven albums over the next five years, developing a following that continues to the present. Fans have constructed WorldWideWeb-sites dedicated to them, and YMO and Sakamoto's influence on the rave, techno and ambient movements is widely recognized. Ryuichi Sakamoto began composing a series of soundtracks, starting in 1983 with Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. That year, Sakamoto left YMO to pursue his career as a solo artist and to pursue his interest in world music. He said, at the time, "I have a kind of cultural map in my head, where I find similarities between different cultures. For example, domestic Japanese pop music sounds like Arabic music to me - the vocal intonation and vibrato, and in my mind Bali is next to New York. Maybe everyone has these geographies in their heads; this is the way I've been working." This work has led to collaborations with many musical artists (Youssou N'dour, Brian Wilson, Iggy Pop, Robbie Robertson, David Bowie, David Byrne, and David Sylvian, Caetano Veloso) and writers (William Burroughs and William Gibson) . Sakamoto also composed and conducted the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. While many consider Sakamoto's best-known work to be the soundtrack to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, in 1987, it was his score for Bertolucci's The Last Emperor that won him an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe and the New York, Los Angeles and British Film Critics Association awards for best original soundtrack. Since then he has worked with Bertolucci twice, Oliver Stone, and Pedro Almodovar (High Heels). Sakamoto also maintains a career as an actor, having starred with David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor, Madonna's Rain music video, and has appeared as a celebrity model for Barney's New York, fashion designer Antonio Miro, and the Gap, and from time to time has appeared as menswear model in the world's most prestigious magazines. Few musicians have a career as rich and diverse as Sakamoto's. Even fewer have his gift for melody sometimes romantic, sometimes melancholy and nostalgic, sometimes playful and humorous.
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